Shoja Shojai, 56, is said to have met most of the women in London and told them he was an oil tycoon whose friends included Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin.

Police discovered invites to offering House of Commons lectures in his name when they went to his Arab-style palace in the Costa del Sol resort of Marbella following a claim of domestic violence by one of the women.

Nine mistresses living at the luxury mansion, most in their 20s, have now made statements accusing him of luring them to Spain under false pretences and subjecting them to emotional abuse and threats of physical violence.

Iranian-born Shojai has been released on bail while a court in Marbella probes the claims and decides whether to charge him.

The women and their children, aged nine months to seven, have been taken to refuges.

Spanish detectives are expected to ask police in Britain to make inquiries on their behalf about Shojai and his alleged victims.

The women, who knew him as Sasha, came from all over Europe and Asia, including Russia, Germany, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. Most were studying at an unnamed London fashion school when they met Shojai.

Several told police they came to Spain on the promise he would help them gain a foot in the door of the fashion industry.

The women lived in a 10-bed mansion on the property in the hills above Marbella called Casa Saf and took turns to sleep with him.

Mansion: Where they lived in Marbella

Shojai, whose 10-year British passport was issued on January 16 2008, lived in an adjoining house called Casa Nabil.

The women have told police they were allowed out of the mansion at all times - but only with staff he employed as drivers and on the proviso they told him where they were going and what time they were returning.

They claim he threatened reprisals against their children and families if they disobeyed him.

The wealthier women, said to come from moneyed backgrounds, say they were made to pay the £6,500-a-month rent on the property.

Local Spanish papers have reported police found date rape drug Rohypnol during a search of the property. An investigating judge in charge of the judicial probe has ordered drugs tests on the women.

Psychologists will also interview them and file a report to the judge with their conclusions on the women's state of minds.

Bedroom: He claims they consented to sex with him

Shojai has denied all the accusations against him.

He claims the women worked for his companies, consented to sex with him, and fell pregnant because they failed to take precautions. He has not made any public comment.

He also denied mistreating them emotionally or physically during a police quiz. He has asked police to investigate the alleged theft of millions of pounds of jewellery, works of art and Persian rugs during the two days he spent in police cells.

Shojai, who walked with a limp, was only married to one of the 10 women he lived with.

It is not clear if the 33-year-old Dane, who had two children with him, is among his nine accusers.

Shojai is understood to have returned alone to his rented mansion.

A worker at the property told the local newspaper Diario Sur he did not believe the women were being held against their will.

Luxury: Locals did not suspect anything untoward

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “The women were very young and very pretty and were usually impeccably dressed in designer clothes.

"They were always accompanied by workers when they left the house in 4x4s that looked like chaffeurs who doubled up as bodyguards.

“They always kept themselves to themselves and didn’t seem to want much to do with the neighbours but I never suspected they might be kept there against their will.

“Apart from one or two, they didn’t look unhappy when I saw them.

“I rarely saw the man the police arrested but he was just as discreet.”

Another added: “It makes me shudder to think they might have been kept there against their will and no-one did anything.

“There were always a lot of pretty women coming and going from the house but I just thought there were several different families living inside the house.